And the big news has finally arrived: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's class of 2007!

This year the honor will go to Van Halen (no surprise there), R.E.M. (ditto), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the Ronettes, and Patti Smith. This was the third year in a row that Flash had been nominated, while the sixth year altogether for Patti. This was also the first time the other three future inductees were nominated, even though Van Halen and the Ronettes have each been eligible for quite some time.

Although Al was not inducted this time out, or even nominated for that matter, we did get a cool little mention today in a Detroit Free Press article on the success of Rock Hall campaigning. Hopefully this will be the first silver lining in what will surely be an exciting, hectic year ahead.

Speaking of which, Al has been hinting that in addition to the confirmed Australian/New Zealand tour this March and the eventual North American tour this summer, the boys might be heading to Europe for the first time ever this spring! We would definitely love to have a volunteer or two covering whatever European shows might be announced, so please keep checking Weirdal.com for tour news...while there is still plenty of time to volunteer to cover an Australian concert. And of course, one doesn't even need to be going to a concert in order to help with our petition....

In any event, we wholeheartedly congratulate the artists who will be inducted later this year and hope they will in turn help us get in another worthy performer.